Deictics:
Welmers' _African Language Structures_ (U of Cal 1973:286-287)
provides some interesting examples of demonstratives, a few of which
appear to be clear counterexamples to Martin Haase's correlation of
proximity with closeness in vowels. Swahili has ule/huu/huo
"that/this/the aforesaid" and ile/hii/hiyo "those/these/the
aforesaid". Kpelle has ngi/ti "this-these/that-those". I don't
know if this is a none example or a counterexample. It may depend on
which feature system you use to describe the consonants. Yatye (my
data) has forms with na'` for proximal and mE for distal, another
counterexample.
Herb Stahlke
Ball State University

Martin Haase notes
> It seems
> that such systems follow an iconic principle: typically, smaller
> or greater distance from the speaker/hearer (the 'deictic point')
> are indicated by closer or more open vowels.
Scottish Gaelic has a three way distinction with the proximate form
being "sinn" (near cardinal vowel 1), medial being "seo" (a lax form
of cardinal 7 -ish) and distal "siad" which is pretty schwalike but
slightly higher.
David